DrupalCon San Francisco ended a few days ago, so once again I’m sitting here with post-DrupalCon blues, trying to wrap my head around what just happened, digging out my backlog of work, and rediscovering my usual rhythm. It happens to me every time, and it is a sign of having had a great time. In short, DrupalCon San Francisco was ‘fantastic’, a word I use sparingly. It is best expressed in numbers, like Matt Cheney of Chapter Three did in his closing session:

Roughly 3000 registered attendees at an average ticket price of $205 USD.

357 days of preparatory planning, including 31 general meetings and 105 daily phone calls. Unlike in the old days, I only participated in one such phone call.

408 proposed sessions of which 131 sessions were accepted and presented.

I had to pass along these astounding stats that Dries posted on his blog yesterday about DrupalCon 2010 that I was fortunate enough to attend in San Francisco a little over a week ago. I’m familiar with the “post-DrupalCon blues” that Dries describes. I’m still trying to shake them! Frankly it was a mind-blowing few days. It’s thrilling to see how mainstream Drupal is becoming, how user-friendly, how diversified, how multi-media friendly… And 3k attendees?!?! It was totally overwhelming! In the good way. ;-)

And the White House keynote was inspiring. Open source. Open government. Open Democracy. Open world. The future is bright! And everyone’s invited! No silos. Just one big-@#$ circus tent… Come one, come all!

A huge thanks to Dries for dreaming up and sharing Drupal. It’s a major game-changer, not only for websites, not only for web developers and web designers. I think that we’re only just beginning to comprehend the scope and potential for Drupal. And your ongoing stewardship of this wild and woolly juggernaut is commendable too. Thank you.

Like this:

“There aren’t any regulations to stop companies from labeling a product that contains dozens of synthetic ingredients with misleading words like “nature” and “health.” But, there is one exception to this rule: A label reading “certified organic” can’t claim this status if it hasn’t been properly certified. Here’s what you need to know about certified organic food.” (holykaw.alltop.com)

Hat tip to Guy Kawasaki for sharing this article forward on Twitter. Much helpful information to aid you in deciphering the increasingly tangled web around organic food production and retail. As for the question of reliability and enforcement, this article doesn’t offer too much assurance that we can 100% trust what we see in advertising or read on packaging. “Anyone who knowingly sells or labels a product “organic” that is not produced and handled in accordance with these regulationscan face a civil penalty of up to $10,000.” But is this a steep enough penalty to discourage fraud?

Google just announced that they will sponsor 18 Drupal developer stipends in this year’s Summer of Code program(SoC). Google provides a stipend of 5,000 USD to each student developer, of which 4,500 USD goes to the student and 500 USD goes to Drupal Association (or to the mentors). With 18 accepted applications this adds up to a 90,000 USD investment over a three-month period, bringing the total investment made by Google in Drupal through SoC to over $450,000 USD.

I just discovered that “Ski Bliss in Avalanche Country“, a blog posting from a few years ago, is one of the top three most popular items on e-Marginalia.com. Hmmm… Does this mean that backcountry skiing in Rogers Pass is a less-well-kept-secret now that the Olympics brought the world to British Columbia?

101 Best Outdoor Towns co-authors Sarah Tuff Dunn and Melville both put the upstate New York town of Lake Placid on their (independently compiled) lists. Dunn says it’s the “classic Main Street, pine-speckled hills and pristine small lakes” that appeal to her, while Melville describes Lake Placid as “the closest you can get to living out West when you’re in the East. It’s got the jagged mountain backdrop surrounding an unpretentious ski village bordered by two crystal lakes.” (Forbes.com)

Beauty, as they say, is in the eye of the beholder, so the definition of “pretty towns” was left up to the experts: Alan Blakely (architectural photographer), Erin Anderson (residential designer), John Vander Stelt (painter), Bob Krist (photographer and host of PBS’ Restoration Stories), Sarah Tuff Dunn and Greg Melville (coauthors of 101 Best Outdoor Towns), Danno Glanz (designer at urban planning and architecture firm Calthorpe Associates), and Greg Ward (coauthor of The Rough Guide USA). The overarching criterion was that all locations balance man-made and natural beauty. Obviously Lake Placid was a shoe-in, but I suspect that there are probably many more that should have made the list. What do you consider to be America’s prettiest town?

Eric Hazan’s The Invention of Paris is a guide, quartier by quartier, to the “psychogeography” of the first great modern city. Hazan is a far-left radical editor now in his 70s, and has lived in Paris all his life. Not only does he know what a certain street smells like, but he can tell us about the geographical, social and political forces that put it there. A widening or a curve might conceal an entire history of oppression – or the moment Baudelaire admired a passing grisette.

Hazan reckons Baudelaire to be the first truly urban poet, a flâneur at the meeting-point between the nocturnal solitary and the individual lost in the crowd. The book proceeds in his urgent spirit, mingling personal knowledge and reminiscence with a Balzacian grasp of the whole. The ghost of Walter Benjamin, the leftwing thinker of a mystical bent who fled occupied Paris and committed suicide at the closed Spanish border, presides over this magnificent meditation on limits and boundaries.

Like this:

“The Internet, arguably the fastest world-changing invention since the Gutenberg printing press, has become the core of our social and business lives. However, the openness and freedom that lie at the heart of the Internet’s success is under threat.”

“A recent federal court ruling determined that the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not have the authority to regulate Internet service providers to prevent them from restricting access to the Internet. Put simply, service providers would have the power to control the pipes that deliver content to consumers and with it the ability to play favorites or discriminate against bits of data.” (Seattle Times)

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40x41: Midlife Mashups

[W]here are the clowns? Send in the clowns Don’t bother, they’re here Isn’t it rich? Isn’t it queer? Losing my timing this late in my career But where are the clowns? Send in the clowns Well, maybe next year